From: greenlife@mediaone.net
Sent: Friday, March 30, 2001 12:38 AM
To: fdadockets@oc.fda.gov
Subject: What's in your food? (FDA Dockets 00N-1396 and 00D-1598)


Dear Corporate and Government Leaders,

Neither government nor industry is protecting Americans from the risks posed to human health and the environment by genetically engineered (GE) foods. The Food and Drug Administration's "new" policy on GE foods (proposed January 18, 2001) continues to let the biotech industry regulate itself; it fails to require the long-term, pre-market safety testing demanded by independent experts. The "voluntary labeling" guidelines are a wholly inadequate response to the overwhelming public support for mandatory labeling of genetically engineered foods. Therefore, I urge you to keep all genetically engineered ingredients and crops off the market unless:

1) Independent safety testing demonstrates they have no harmful effects on human health or the environment, 

2) They are labeled to ensure the consumer's right-to-know, and 

3) The biotechnology corporations that manufacture them are held accountable for any harms they may cause.


These caveats are not meant as obstacles for you to 
try and 'get around'.  They are the bare minimum of 
moral guidelines.  You should make them your 
minimum priority.  Any indication of further trouble with 
your genetically modified foods should cause you to 
increase caution, and remove gm products from the 
market even faster.  There are a myriad of other areas 
of economic endeavor that could be of profit and 
service both to agribusiness and also to the people who 
are the economy, who are the Americans you serve.  
Which of you big business guys will be the one to start 
the honest return to good and people-centered 
business?  Do you really want to be handmaids to the 
demise of civilization?  How long do you think your 
bunker will last when the catastrophe's come?
WAKE UP!  
We're here to live happily and creatively, not to fight 
frantically and sadly against a death created by 
ignorance.
I expect a response, some sort of sign that you're not 
just another criminal in disguise, usurping the integrity 
of American business.


Sincerely

William Beuscher
16 Kelly Road
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139